Jonathan Griffiths

 I am enormously grateful to the James Pantyfedwen Foundation for supporting me in both my MSt degree in Greek & Latin Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford (2014-2015) and in my PhD degree in History and Philosophy of Science at UCL (2017-2022). Without the help of the Foundation, I doubt that I would have been able to undertake these two degrees, which together provide me with excellent foundations for a career of academic research in philosophy and classics.

 In my Master’s degree I learned how to conduct research more independently and widened my understanding of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, writing a Master’s thesis on the way that Greek philosophers (especially Stoics) shaped the thinking of Roman poets in the first century CE and receiving a Distinction for the degree as a whole. After two years of independent study based at the University of Heidelberg, I then wrote a 100,000-word PhD thesis on the way that mathematics informed Plato’s understanding of the natural world and its importance for the later history of science (especially astronomy and cosmology). This work allows me to publish some of my findings in top-level academic journals and convert the bulk of my PhD thesis into a book or monograph, which will add to our current knowledge of Plato’s natural philosophy and the history of (Greek) mathematics. 

The support provided by the Foundation has enabled me to do what I have always loved to do, that is to study, read and write, develop ideas, and build watertight philosophical arguments. I will forever be grateful for the contribution which the Foundation has made to my early career and the direction of my life as a whole.